+1 Michuki on your good points
1. Today we import more than 80% of the Internet traffic consumed in Kenya causing an "Internet Transit Deficit" where significantly less Internet traffic is generated locally than accessed from overseas, similar to what was experienced between Europe and the US during the late 1990's.
However, what constitutes this traffic? Is it local content held abroad or is it genuinely content that cannot otherwise be obtained/generated locally. If it is local content held abroad, of which I am convinced it is, what is the best solution pre-2030: more fiber - both under sea and terrestrial, more redundant landing stations, better behaved shipping lines or more capacity and enabling environment for local hosting and local content providers? Considering a typical case where my suppliers are in Kenya, my means of production is in Kenya, my clients are in Kenya with an occasionally client or two from abroad. If I had an extra shilling to spend on my business, what would make more sense, reengineer my offering to attract more international clients or strengthen my local offering? How is it that we are comfortable with our top publicly listed telco, Safaricom delivering traffic to our top publicly listed media house in the UK? What ought to be the focus of our policy makers, regulators and licensors: facilitating scenarios as these or formulating ways to reverse such? Are there any benefits of such traffic transactions happening here in Kenya say at KIXP? How much would it cost say Safaricom to host say NMG's suite of websites, even if free of charge, verses how much does it cost them in terms of procured capacity, to deliver NMG bound traffic to the UK? Are there any short/long term benefits? Can both firms and others be given tax incentives to facilitate the above as opposed draining money on software certifications, a duplication of what more tax-payer money is already successfully doing at public universities? -- Growing up in the seventies and eighties was interesting... Across all homes I knew, my friends, my cousins and even the one I grew up in, the best of everything was not for regular use by the "locals". The best cutlery, the best linen, we even had a term "Sunday Best" to describe that one Kaunda suit that could only be worn on Sundays. Chicken was only to be served when there were visitors (read "foreigners"). Back then, things were done more for the benefit of "foreigners" than for the benefit of "locals" - or how do you explain those grandiose wooden chests in the living room with all manner of expensive cutlery on display while "locals" made do with plastic cups and recycled blue-band tins. Fast forward 30 years, and yes only time has "changed". We the lads and lasses growing up in the seventies and eighties are now in our 30s, 40s and 50s and yes, we are policy makers but as you know old habits die hard and so do bad ones. Our preoccupation is on how to better facilitate delivery of traffic abroad for what has been generated locally and is to be consumed within our borders. This we see as good practice: pay for export of our locally produced content and pay some more for its delivery back home unmodified for consumption. We see no problem giving a foreign company most of our government data via opendata because they are more competent than locals in deciphering and analyzing the data on and about the locals Why are we so preoccupied with the international market as though there are no business opportunities for locals? If indeed ICT and ecommerce is the next economic frontier, "naomba sirkal"... Nkt! Regards -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+eugene=synergy.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eugene=synergy.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Michuki Mwangi Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 12:10 PM To: Eugene Lidede Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] TEAMS | EASSY Fibre Cables Cut? SEACOM | LION? On 2/28/12 9:06 AM, James Mbugua wrote:
Brian
TEAMS general manager Joel Tanui said it will take three weeks although that may be to avoid over promising.
I'm told Eassy also has a cut near Djibouti and is currently being repaired.
Operators now have no option but to switch to the very expensive Seacom. By some accounts it is three times as expensive as TEAMS.
Safaricom which carries 80 per cent of Kenya's internet traffic usually has 50 per cent going through TEAMS and has switched this to Seacom.
IMHO we need to have a clearer understanding of the bigger picture to set the long term goals and objectives. 1. Today we import more than 80% of the Internet traffic consumed in Kenya causing an "Internet Transit Deficit" where significantly less Internet traffic is generated locally than accessed from overseas, similar to what was experienced between Europe and the US during the late 1990's. 2. We are dependent on a single East-Bound path from "Nairobi - Mombasa - (Mumbai/Fujaira) before going to Europe. This is despite the fact that we have terrestrial capacity from Cape Town to Cairo to provide an North-bound path that would complement the longer path. 3. The BBC article did not mention that, with the Submarine cable cuts the Internet traffic between the East African Countries Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda are most adversely affected. My current tests are showing over 1sec latency from Nairobi to some networks in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. This is despite the reality that Uganda and Rwanda are largely dependent on the terrestrial cables passing through Kenya onto the cables. 4. South bound Internet traffic (to Southern Africa) has acquires satellite like latencies (higher than 500ms). As a result of the cable cuts. There's more than sufficient capacity terrestrially but we still have to go to Europe before going back South. If we can work towards resolving the above issues with concrete plans and solutions. It's likely that such cable cuts in the future will not cause the level of attention and anxiety that we see are experiencing today. My 2 cents. Regards, Michuki. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/eugene%40synergy.co.ke The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTAnet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.